September 24, 2015

Human genetic variation and microbiome composition, turmeric & travel, Nicotiana recruitment, and microbial stress in the city.

General microbiome

Editorial: Host genetic architecture and the landscape of microbiome composition: humans weigh in – Andrew K Benson – Genome Biology

Host genetic variation impacts microbiome composition across human body sites
Ran Blekhman – Genome Biology

Database of host-pathogen and related species interactions, and their global distribution – Maya Wardeh – Scientific Data

Pregnancy and birth

The role of breast-feeding in infant immune system: a systems perspective on the intestinal microbiome – Paurush Praveen – Microbiome

The role of infection in miscarriage – Sevi Giakoumelou – Human Reproduction Update

Human gut microbiome

The Effect of Probiotics on Gut Microbiota during the Helicobacter pylori Eradication: Randomized Controlled Trial – Bumjo Oh – Helicobacter

Intestinal microbial communities associated with acute enteric infections and disease recovery – Pallavi Singh – Microbiome

Review: Advancing gut microbiome research using cultivation – Morten OA Sommer – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Human urinary tract microbiome

Re: The Microbiome of the Urinary Tract—A Role Beyond Infection – Alan J. Wein – The Journal of Urology

Animal models

Modulation of gut microbiota by berberine and metformin during the treatment of high-fat diet-induced obesity in rats – Xu Zhang – Scientific Reports

A small-molecule antivirulence agent for treating Clostridium difficile infection – Kristina Oresic Bender – Science Translational Medicine

Regulators of Gut Motility Revealed by a Gnotobiotic Model of Diet-Microbiome Interactions Related to Travel – Neelendu Dey – Cell

Animal microbiome

High-throughput DNA sequencing of the moose rumen from different geographical
location reveals a core ruminal methanogenic archaeal diversity and a differential
ciliate protozoal diversity – Suzanne Lynn Ishaq – Microbial Genomics

Microbial populations and fermentation profiles in rumen liquid and solids of Holstein cows respond differently to dietary barley processing – Barbara U. Metzler-Zebeli – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Culture based: Actinomycetes from the South China Sea sponges: isolation, diversity and potential for aromatic polyketides discovery – Zhiyong Li – Frontiers in Microbiology

Longitudinal study of the early-life fecal and nasal microbiotas of the domestic pig – Mackenzie Jonathan Slifierz – BMC Microbiology

Faecal microbiota characterisation of horses using 16 rdna barcoded pyrosequencing, and carriage rate of clostridium difficile at hospital admission – Cristina Rodriguez – BMC Microbiology

Essential Amino Acid Supplementation by Gut Microbes of a Wood-Feeding Cerambycid – Paul A. Ayayee – Environmental Entomology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

RhizoFlowCell system reveals early effects of micropollutants on aquatic plant rhizosphere – Kalyan Chakravarthy Mynampati – Environmental Pollution

Vineyard soil bacterial diversity and composition revealed by 16S rRNA genes: Differentiation by geographic features – Kayla N. Burns – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Nicotiana Roots Recruit Rare Rhizosphere Taxa as Major Root-Inhabiting Microbes – Muhammad Saleem – Plant Microbe Interactions

Planting increases the abundance and structure complexity of soil core functional genes relevant to carbon and nitrogen cycling – Feng Wang – Scientific Reports

The coupling of the plant and microbial catabolisms of phenanthrene in the rhizosphere of Medicago sativa – Anna Muratova – Journal of Plant Physiology

Contrasting soil bacterial community structure between the phyla Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria in tropical Southeast Asian and temperate Japanese forests – Naohiko T. Miyashita – Genes & Genetic Systems

Review: Ecological importance of soil bacterivores for ecosystem functions – Jean Trap – Plant and Soil

Editorial: Microbial ecology of hydrocarbon-polluted coastal sediments – Robert Duran – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Waste microbiology

Identification of Bacteria Synthesizing Ribosomal RNA in Response to Uranium Addition During Biostimulation at the Rifle, CO Integrated Field Research Site – Lora R. McGuinness – PLOS ONE

Microbial ecology of hydrocarbon-polluted coastal sediments – Robert Duran – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Built environment microbiome

Urban stress is associated with variation in microbial species composition-but not richness-in Manhattan – Aspen T Reese – ISME Journal

Microbiome of death

The Search for a Volatile Human Specific Marker in the Decomposition Process – E. Rosier – PLOS ONE

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

In silico identification of bacteriocin gene clusters in the gastrointestinal tract, based on the Human Microbiome Project’s reference genome database – Calum J. Walsh – BMC Microbiology

PhD thesis: Novel methods for comparing and evaluating single and metagenomic assemblies – Christopher M. Hill – University of Maryland

Microbes in the news

Metagenomic Sequencing Shows Changes in Healthy Gut Microbiome Pre- and Post-Antibiotics – Genome Web

Study shows whale microbiome shares characteristics with both ruminants and predators – Phys.org

Researchers isolate the ‘human smell of death’ – Elizabeth Pennisi – Science

Scientists find way to disarm deadly bacteria without destroying the good ones in your gut – Lena H. Sun – Washington Post

Science, publishing, and career

Failure to replicate the STAP cell phenomenon – Alejandro De Los Angeles – @nature

Make academic job advertisements fair to all: Too many university posts are given to men without proper competition – Mathias Wullum Nielsen – Nature

Gender-disparity study faces attack: A paper suggesting a Dutch grant scheme shows bias against women is criticized for a statistical flaw – Chris Woolston

Bik’s Picks

In the name of beauty: phasing out plastic microbeads found in skin scrubs – Nature

How Climate Change Shrank the Tongues of Long-Tongued Bumblebees – Ed Yong

Enamel evolved in the skin and colonized the teeth much later – EurekAlert

Giant Killer Lizards Lived Among Ice-Age Aussies – Discovery
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September 13, 2015

General microbiome

Prediction of relevant biomedical documents: a human microbiome case study – Paul Thompson – BioData Mining

Pregnancy and birth

High frequencies of antibiotic resistance genes in infants’ meconium and early fecal samples – M. J. Gosalbes – Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Human gut microbiome

A Metagenomic Investigation of the Duodenal Microbiota Reveals Links with Obesity – Emmanouil Angelakis – PLOS ONE

Gut microbiota diversity predicts immune status in HIV-1 infection – Nowak, Piotr – AIDS

The human gut mycobiome: pitfalls and potentials-a mycologist’s perspective – Mallory J Suhr – Mycologia

Animal microbiome

Cloacal Microbiome Structure in a Long-Distance Migratory Bird Assessed Using Deep 16sRNA Pyrosequencing – Jakub Kreisinger – PLOS ONE

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria Stimulate Vegetative Growth and Asexual Reproduction of Kalanchoe daigremontiana – Yong-Soon Park – The Plant Pathology Journal

Water / Extremophile microbiome

Activity and community structures of sulfate-reducing microorganisms in polar, temperate and tropical marine sediments – Alberto Robador – The ISME Journal

Ecology and application of haloalkaliphilic anaerobic microbial communities – João A.B. Sousa – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Microbiological characterization of aquatic microbiomes targeting taxonomical marker genes and antibiotic resistance genes of opportunistic bacteria – Johannes Alexander – Science of the Total Environment

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Predicting Microbial Interactions Using Vector Autoregressive Model with Graph
Regularization – Xingpeng Jiang – , IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
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September 12, 2015

Human gut microbiome reshaping by antibiotics, human gut microbiome and  blood lipids, periodontal disease in dogs, and microbial diversity in the presence of sequencing errors.

Human skin microbiome

Very small and not quite original study: Microbial Forensic Analysis of Bacterial Fingerprint by Sequence Comparison of 16S rRNA Gene – So-Yeon Lee – Forensic Research

Human gut microbioma

The initial state of the human gut microbiome determines its reshaping by antibiotics – Frédéric Raymond – The ISME Journal

The Gut Microbiome Contributes to a Substantial Proportion of the Variation in Blood Lipids – Jingyaun Fu – Circulation Research

Microbiome and Potential Targets for Chemoprevention of Esophageal Adenocarcinoma – Antonio Galvao Neto, M – Seminars in Oncology

Review: Gut Microbiome and the Development of Food Allergy and Allergic Disease – Benjamin T. Prince – Pediatrics Clinics of North America

Review: The Microbiome and Its Potential as a Cancer Preventive Intervention
Scott J. Bultman – Seminars in Oncology

Animal microbiome

A longitudinal assessment of changes in bacterial community composition associated with the development of periodontal disease in dogs – Corrin Wallis- Veterinary Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Microbiote shift in the Medicago sativa rhizosphere in response to cyanotoxins extract exposure – Fatima El Khalloufi – Science of the Total Environment

Bacterial endophytes of sweet potato tuberous roots affected by the plant genotype and growth stage – Joana Montezano Marques – Applied Soil Ecology

Impact of grazing abandonment on plant and soil microbial communities in an Atlantic mountain grassland – A. Aldezabal – Applied Soil Ecology

Phyllosphere and carposphere bacterial communities in olive plants subjected to different cultural practices – Silvia Pascazio

Maize biochar addition rate influences soil enzyme activity and microbial community composition in a fluvo-aquic soil – Xiubin Wang – Applied Soil Ecology

Water microbiome

Microscopy- or DNA-based analyses: Which methodology gives a truer picture of stream-dwelling decomposer fungal diversity? – Isabel Fernandes – Fungal Ecology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Ten Simple Rules for a Computational Biologist’s Laboratory Notebook – Santiago Schnell – PLOS Computational Biology

Estimating and comparing microbial diversity in the presence of sequencing errors – Chun-Huo Chiu, Anne Chao – PeerJ Preprint

Poster abstract: How to design an efficient and robust pipeline for 16S rRNA-gene sequence analysis to improve our understanding on microbial communities? – Lucas Auer – Journées Ouvertes Biologie Informatique Mathématiques

Techniques

Another blast from the past: Simple fools guide to PCR v1 – Jonathan Eisen – Microbenet

Microbes in the news

Link between microbiota 
and piglet performance – All About Feed

Researchers compare the gut viromes of Malawian children with severe acute malnutrition – Christopher Packham – Medical Xpress

Keeping gut bacteria in balance could help delay age-related diseases, study finds – Stuart Wolpert – Medical Xpress

Gut Microbes Associated With HDL, Triglycerides, and BMI – Becky McCall – MedScape

How Bacteria Control Your Cholesterol – Alice Park – Time

Why You Should Not Wear Contact Lenses – Health Impact News

Science, publishing, and career

Eva Harris: making science democratic, and sustainable – The Lancet

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September 11, 2015

Gates Foundation grant proposals, microbiome of the Amazon river. It’s too early here in Europe to get the new Pubmed  and other alerts, so a very short Digest today.

Call for proposals

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation put up several calls for grant proposals:

  • Addressing Newborn and Infant Gut Health Through Bacteriophage-Mediated Microbiome Engineering
  • Novel Approaches to Characterizing and Tracking the Global Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance

Rethinking heritability of the microbiome – Edward J. van Opstal, Seth R. Bordenstein – Science

Human gut microbiome

Review: Ecology and Evolution of the Human Microbiota: Fire, Farming and Antibiotics
Michael R. Gillings – Genes

Water microbiome

Metagenomic and metatranscriptomic inventories of the lower Amazon River, May 2011 – Brandon M. Satinsky – Microbiome

Microbes in the news

A World First: Pherecydes Pharma Launches Multicenter Clinical Study Of Phage Therapy In Serious Burn Victims – Biospace

New research finds balance between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria in humans altered – Medical Xpress

Your stomach bacteria determines which diet is best for weight reduction – HealthCanal

Latest military lab concerns involve plague bacteria, deadly viruses – Tom Vanden Brook and Alison Young – USA Today

Bacteria Bandage: Prototype Made Of Innovative Nanofibers Cleans Wounds, Prevents Infection – Susan Scutti – Medical Daily

A Novel Device That Can Sniff Out Bacteria in Drinking Water – NDTV

Science, publishing, and career

Nice to know you: “But then we tried an often overlooked strategy: Share an office!”
Malou Henriksen-Lacey, Juan J. Giner-Casares – Science

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September 8, 2015

How Bifidobacterium species digest human milk oligosaccharides, yeast species in floral nectar, and microbes of the cryosphere.

Pregnancy and birth

Comparative transcriptomics reveals key differences in the response to milk oligosaccharides of infant gut-associated bifidobacteria – Daniel Garrido – Scientific Reports

Human oral microbiome

Dental caries-not just holes in teeth! A perspective – William H. Bowen – Molecular Oral Microbiology

Progress in oral personalized medicine: contribution of ‘omics’ – Ingrid Glurich – Journal of Oral Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Editorial: Modeling the Context-Dependent Associations between the Gut Microbiome, Its Environment, and Host Health – Thomas J. Sharpton – mBio

Review: Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis in Obesity-Linked Metabolic Diseases and Prebiotic Potential of Polyphenol-Rich Extracts – Fernando F. Anhê – Current Obesity Reports

Review: The gut microbiota and host health: a new clinical frontier – Julian R Marchesi – Gut

Animal models

Distinct but Spatially Overlapping Intestinal Niches for Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus faecium and Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae – Silvia Caballero – PLOS Pathogens

An Overview of Typical Infections of Research Mice: Health Monitoring and Prevention of Infection – James R. Fahey – Current Protocols in Mouse Biology

Editorial: The bug eye bandits – Yvonne Bordon – Nature Reviews Immunology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Species coexistence in simple microbial communities: unravelling the phenotypic landscape of co-occurring Metschnikowia species in floral nectar – María I. Pozo – Environmental Microbiology

Unveiling the metabolic potential of two soil-derived microbial consortia selected on wheat straw – Diego Javier Jiménez – Scientific Reports

Crop rotation of flooded rice with upland maize impacts the resident and active methanogenic microbial community – Björn Breidenbach – Environmental Microbiology

Water microbiome

Methane and microbial dynamics in the Gulf of Mexico water column – Chrisoulla Rakowski – Frontiers in Marine Science

Transformation of Organic Matter by Microbial Community in Sediments of Lake Baikal under Experimental Thermobaric Conditions of Protocatagenesis – Olga N. Pavlova – Geomicrobiology Journal

Extremophiles

Metagenomic analysis reveals that modern microbialites and polar microbial mats have similar taxonomic and functional potential – Richard A. White III – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Microbial ecology of the cryosphere: sea ice and glacial habitats – Antje Boetius – Nature Reviews Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

ConStrains identifies microbial strains in metagenomic datasets – Chengwei Luo – Nature Biotechnology

Review: High-throughput bacterial functional genomics in the sequencing era – Andrew N Gray – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Techniques

Uniform and accurate single-cell sequencing based on emulsion whole-genome amplification – Yusi Fu – PNAS

Microbes in the news

Seal fur and Arctic bacteria leach toxic mercury into waters – Joshua Sokol – New Scientist

Time to Give Up Showers and Spray Yourself With a Coating of Live Bacteria
Madeleine Davies – Jezebel

A Look Inside the Lunch Boxes of Diet & Exercise Researchers – Ann Marie Awad – WRKF

Poo transplants can eliminate two superbugs from the gut: mice study – Eliza Berlage – The Conversation

Genetic Factors Drive Roles of Gut Bacteria in Diabetes and Obesity – News Wise

Bik’s Picks

Mercury offloaded in Northern elephant seal hair affects coastal seawater surrounding rookery – Jennifer M. Cossaboon – PNAS

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September 6, 2015

General microbiome

Recurrent antibiotic exposure may promote cancer formation – Another step in understanding the role of the human microbiota? – Ben Boursi – European Journal of Cancer

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Clinical chorioamnionitis at term VI: acute chorioamnionitis and funisitis according to the presence or absence of microorganisms and inflammation in the amniotic cavity – Roberto Romero – Journal of Perinatal Medicine

Pregnancy-related changes in the maternal gut microbiota are dependent upon the mother’s periconceptional diet – Wajiha Gohir – Gut Microbes

Potential NICU Environmental Influences on the Neonate’s Microbiome: A Systematic Review – Hartz, Lacey E. – Advances in Neonatal Care

Human oral microbiome

Analysis of the Microbiota of Black Stain in the Primary Dentition – Yue Li – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Furry pets modulate gut microbiota composition in infants at risk for allergic disease
Merja Nermes – The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Gut microbiome in Chronic Kidney Disease – Maria R. Wing – Experimental Physiology

Editorial: Microbial growth dynamics and human disease – Julia A. Segre – Science

Animal microbiome

Review: Heterogeneity of the gut microbiome in mice: guidelines for optimizing experimental design – Debby Laukens – FEMS Microbiology Reviews

454 Pyrosequencing-based assessment of bacterial diversity and community structure in termite guts, mounds and surrounding soils – Huxley M. Makonde – Springer Plus

Fish: Study of the microbiome of the intestine of the Comephorus dybowski korotneff, 1904 – N. L. Bel’kova – Ecology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

An analysis of Pseudomonas genomic diversity in take-all infected wheat fields reveals the lasting impact of wheat cultivars on the soil microbiota – T.H. Mauchline – Environmental Microbiology

Selection of biological indicators appropriate for European soil monitoring – D. Stone – Applied Soil Ecology

Effects of silver nanoparticles on soil microorganisms and maize biomass are linked in the rhizosphere – Wouter Sillen – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Arbuscular mycorrhiza symbiosis in viticulture: a review – Sophie Trouvelot – Agronomy for Sustainable Development

Soil particle size fractions harbour distinct microbial communities and differ in potential for microbial mineralisation of organic pollutants – Michael Hemkemeyer – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Differential responses of total and active soil microbial communities to long-term experimental N deposition – Zachary B. Freedman – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Environmental changes affect the assembly of soil bacterial community primarily by mediating stochastic processes – Ximei Zhang – Global Change

Built environment microbiome

Thesis: The building science of office surfaces: implications for microbial community succession – Mahnaz Zare – University of Toronto

Microbial Ecology

Dynamics of an experimental microbial invasion – Francisco Acosta – PNAS

Click to access 1505204112.full.pdf

Bioinformatics

metaModules identifies key functional subnetworks in microbiome-related disease – Ali May – Bioinformatics

ISMapper: identifying transposase insertion sites in bacterial genomes from short read sequence data – Jane Hawkey – BMC Genomics

WiseScaffolder: an algorithm for the semi-automatic scaffolding of Next Generation Sequencing data – Gregory K. Farrant – BMC Bioinformatics

Inferring microbial interaction network from microbiome data using RMN algorithm
Kun-Nan Tsai – BMC Systems Biology
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September 5, 2015

Events

The Individual Microbe: Single-cell Analysis and Agent-based Modeling – ASM conference – March 18-20, 2016, Washington DC, USA

R workshop for microbial ecology – Pat Schloss – Nov 2-4, 2015, Detroit – No link but can email Pat at: pschloss@umich.edu

General microbiome

Privacy-Preserving Microbiome Analysis Using Secure Computation – Justin Wagner – BioRxiv

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Phylogenetic and Metabolic Tracking of Gut Microbiota during Perinatal Development – Federica Del Chierico – PLOS ONE

Human oral microbiome

The Effect of Fixed Orthodontic Appliances and Fluoride Mouthwash on the Oral Microbiome of Adolescents – A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial – Jessica E. Koopman – PLOS ONE

Review: Oral Paleomicrobiology: study of the ancient oral microbiome – Namrata Dagli

Human gut microbiome

The effect of dietary resistant starch type 2 on the microbiota and markers of gut inflammation in rural Malawi children – M. Isabel Ordiz – Microbiome

Gastrointestinal Microbiome Modulator Improves Glucose Tolerance in Overweight and Obese Subjects: A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial – Candida J. Rebello – Journal of Diabetes and its Complications

Faecal proteomics: A tool to investigate dysbiosis and inflammation in patients with cystic fibrosis – Griet Debyser – Journal of Cystic Fibrosis

Review: Pathways and functions of gut microbiota metabolism impacting host physiology – Smitha Krishnan – Current Opinion in Biotechnology

Review: Microbiome in Inflammatory Arthritis and Human Rheumatic Diseases – Jose U. Scher – Arthritis & Rheumatology

Review: The human microbiome: opportunities and challenges for clinical care – G. B. Rogers – Internal Medicine Journal

Human respiratory microbiome (see also gut microbiome above)

MRSA Colonization and the Nasal Microbiome in Adults at High Risk for Colonization and Infection – Mary T. Bessesen – Journal of Infection

Review: Cystic fibrosis lung microbiome: Opportunities to reconsider management of airway infection – Lindsay J. Caverly – Pediatric Pulmonology

Human other sites

In silico analyses of metagenomes from human atherosclerotic plaque samples – Suparna Mitra – Microbiome

Microbiome models

Distinct Shifts in Microbiota Composition during Drosophila Aging Impair Intestinal Function and Drive Mortality – Rebecca I. Clark – Cell Reports

Perspective: Metabolic labeling puts the microbiome under the microscope – Graham J Britton & Jeremiah J Faith – Nature Medicine

Animal microbiome

The composition of the zebrafish intestinal microbial community varies across development – W Zac Stephens – ISME Journal

Shifts in the Midgut/Pyloric Microbiota Composition within a Honey Bee Apiary throughout a Season – Jane Ludvigsen – Microbes and Environments

The genome of Aiptasia, a sea anemone model for coral symbiosis – Sebastian Baumgarten – PNAS

Special Issue: The Mammalian Microbiome and Its Importance in Laboratory Animal Research – André Bleich and James G. Fox – ILAR Journal

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Predicting Ecological Roles in the Rhizosphere Using Metabolome and Transportome Modeling – Peter E. Larsen – PLOS ONE

Microbiome change by symbiotic invasion in lichens – Wedin Mats – Environmental Microbiology

Plant-associated microbiomes in arid lands: diversity, ecology and biotechnological potential – Asma Soussi – Plant and Soil

Geological connectivity drives microbial community structure and connectivity in polar, terrestrial ecosystems – Belinda C. Ferrari – Environmental Microbiology

Water microbiome

Anthropogenic activities drive the microbial community and its function in urban river sediment – Xu Zhang – Journal of Soils and Sediments

Built environment microbiome

Bacterial Communities and Midgut Microbiota Associated with Mosquito Populations from Waste Tires in East-Central Illinois – Chang-Hyun Kim – Journal of Medical Entomology

Hospital’s Hidden Environmental Hazards: Probing the Microbiome – BioScience

Pyrosequencing analysis of bacterial communities in biofilms from different pipe materials in a city drinking water distribution system of East China – Hongxing Ren – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Food microbiology

The genomics of microbial domestication in the fermented food environment
John G Gibbons – Current Opinion in Genetics & Development

Bioinformatics

Functional Basis of Microorganism Classification – Chengsheng Zhu – PLOS Computational Biology

ReproPhylo: An Environment for Reproducible Phylogenomics – Amir Szitenberg – PLOS Computational Biology

MetaBAT, an efficient tool for accurately reconstructing single genomes from complex microbial communities – Dongwan D. Kang – PeerJ

More Microbiology

Evolution of coexistence in a crowded microplate well – J. Arjan G. M. de Visser – PNAS

The rpb2 gene represents a viable alternative molecular marker for the analysis of environmental fungal communities – Tomáš Větrovský – Molecular Ecology Resources

Microbes in the news

Microbial diversity insights are often strongly biased – Suffield Times
Small advances: understanding the microbiome – Amanda Smith – ABC Australia

Science, publishing and career

When science fails a scientist – Kim Hunter-Schaedle – Science

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September 1, 2015

General microbiome

Perspective: Better together: engineering and application of microbial symbioses – Stephanie G Hays – Current Opinion in Biotechnology

Pregnancy and birth

Maternal use of probiotics during pregnancy and effects on their offspring’s health in an unselected population – Nicole Rutten – European Journal of Pediatrics

Impact of maternal bifidobacteria and the mode of delivery on Bifidobacterium microbiota in infants – S. Sirilun – Beneficial Microbes

Human Milk Oligosaccharides in Premature Infants: Absorption, Excretion and Influence on the Intestinal Microbiota – Mark A. Underwood – Pediatric Research

The influence of impact delivery mode, lactation time, infant gender, maternal age and rural or urban life on total number of Lactobacillus in breast milk Isfahan – Iran – Mansoureh Taghizadeh – Advanced Biomedical Research

Review: Maternal Microbiome and Pregnancy Outcomes That Impact Infant Health: A Review – Anne L Dunlop – Advances in Neonatal Care

Human gut microbiome

Characterization of the gut microbiota of Kawasaki disease patients by metagenomic analysis – Akiko Kinumaki – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Microbiome Disturbances and Autism Spectrum Disorders – Cheryl S. Rosenfeld – Drug Metabolism & Disposition

Review: Investigation of Host–Gut Microbiota Modulation of Therapeutic Outcome – Lian Yee Yip – Drug Metabolism & Disposition

Perspective: Could gut microbiota protect against sclerosing cholangitis? – Hanns-Ulrich Marschall – Hepatology

Models of microbiome research

Probiotic Bifidobacterium longum alters gut luminal metabolism through modification of the gut microbial community – Hirosuke Sugahara – Scientific Reports

Microbial community profiles of the colon from steers differing in feed efficiency – Phillip R Myer – Springer Plus

Distinct Shifts in Microbiota Composition during Drosophila Aging Impair Intestinal Function and Drive Mortality – Rebecca I. Clark – Cell Reports

Impact of Fishmeal Replacement in Diets for Gilthead Sea Bream (Sparus aurata) on the Gastrointestinal Microbiota Determined by Pyrosequencing the 16S rRNA Gene – G. Estruch – PLOS ONE

Lean rats gained more body weight than obese ones from a high-fibre diet – Shaoting Li – British Journal of Nutrition

Microbiota RORgulates intestinal suppressor T cells – Ahmed N. Hegazy – Science

Review: Heterogeneity of the gut microbiome in mice: guidelines for optimizing experimental design – Debby Laukens – FEMS Microbiology Reviews

Animal microbiome

Temporal variation selects for diet–microbe co-metabolic traits in the gut of Gorilla spp – Andres Gomez – The ISME Journal

Domestication and cereal feeding developed domestic pig-type intestinal microbiota in animals of suidae – Kazunari Ushida – Animal Science Journal

Rapid Change of Microbiota Diversity in the Gut but Not the Hepatopancreas During Gonadal Development of the New Shrimp Model Neocaridina denticulata – Man Kit Cheung – Marine Biotechnology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The Effect of Long-Term Continuous Cropping of Black Pepper on Soil Bacterial Communities as Determined by 454 Pyrosequencing – Wu Xiong – PLOS ONE

A metagenomic window into carbon metabolism at 3 km depth in Precambrian continental crust – Cara Magnabosco – The ISME Journal

A review: What is the spermosphere and how can it be studied? – Séverine Schiltz – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

glmgraph: An R Package for Variable Selection and Predictive Modeling of Structured Genomic Data – Li Chen – Bioinformatics

Discovery of phosphonic acid natural products by mining the genomes of 10,000 actinomycetes – Kou-San Ju – PNAS

Techniques

Mass Spectrometry-based PhyloProteomics (MSPP): A novel microbial typing Method – Andreas Erich Zautner – Scientific Reports

Microbes and art

Made of Bacteria, This Living Type Morphs Into New Letterforms: Ori Elisar’s project Living Language blurs the lines between designer and mad scientist with his Hebrew symbols grown in petridishes – Meg Miller – FastcoDesign

Microbes in the news

Unusual throat (and mouth) germs linked to schizophrenia, says two new studies – Amy Ellis Nutt – Washington Post

Some Sexually Transmitted Microbes Might Be Good for You – Marissa Fessenden – Smithsonian

How Does Your Microbiome Grow? The reproduction rates of the bacteria in one’s gut may be a good indicator of health or disease – Health Canal

How Do We Build Our Microbiomes? Exhibition “The Secret World Inside You” opens November 7 – American Museum of Natural History

New Yeast And Bacterial Starters Developed For Truly Wild European Wines – Eurasia Review

Bacteria Hysteria

Are your kid’s backpacks a magnet for bacteria? – Anna Zook – WJHL.com

Bik’s Picks

Acoustic shadows help gleaning bats find prey, but may be defeated by prey acoustic camouflage on rough surfaces – Elizabeth L Clare – eLIFE
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August 21, 2015

Gut microbiota in Malaysian children, humanized microbiota mice, and ecosystem productivity in surface marine waters. Happy weekend!

Human respiratory microbiome

Association of Mucosal Organisms with Patterns of Inflammation in Chronic Rhinosinusitis – Thanit Chalermwatanachai – PLOS ONE

Human gut microbiome

Relatively little data given on socioeconomic status, but that appears to be much greater factor than ehtnicity – if you read scarce information in methods.
Effect of ethnicity and socioeconomic variation to the gut microbiota composition among pre-adolescent in Malaysia – Chun Wie Chong – Scientific Reports

Review: Intestinal Fucose as a Mediator of Host–Microbe Symbiosis – Joseph M. Pickard – The Journal of Immunology

Animal models

Characterization of the Genital Microenvironment of Female Rhesus Macaques Prior to and After SIV Infection – Whitney A. Nichols – American Journal of Reproductive Immunology

Humanized microbiota mice as a model of recurrent Clostridium difficile disease – James Collins – Microbiome

Water microbiome

Ecosystem productivity is associated to bacterial phylogenetic distance in surface marine waters – Pierre E. Galand – Molecular Ecology

Waste water microbiology

Thesis: The Effects of Perturbations on Microbial Community Dynamics and Process Performance in Wastewater Bioreactors – Hari Seshan – University of California, Davis

Techniques

Review: Molecular biology-based methods for quantification of bacteria in mixed culture: perspectives and limitations – Karthiga Nagarajan – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Microbes in the news

Autoimmune eye infection caused by bacteria in the gut – Mohan Garikiparithi – Bel Marra Health

The Brain-Gut Axis, Part 3 – The Gut Microbiota In Disease – Sara Adaes – Brain Blogger

Workshop on microbiology conducted – The Hindu

Podcast: Forensic Microbiology Part 2: Secrets of Soil – SocGenMicro at Soundcloud

How long have primates been infected with viruses related to HIV? – EurekAlert

Bik’s Picks

‘Mutant’ Lice More Hype Than Headache: Treatment failure doesn’t equal clinical resistance – Hanneke Weitering – MedPageToday

Doctors Behaving Badly: Annals of Internal Medicine published an anonymous essay recounting two appalling incidents – Roni Caryn Rabin – New York Times

Humans are now a unique class of ‘super-predators’ thanks to ‘wickedly efficient killing technology’: study – Randy Shore – National Post

Most Of Us Have Disgusting Contact Lens Habits – Rachael Rettner – LiveScience

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August 19, 2015

Guidelines and principles to use “holobionts”, microbiome and provoking autoimmunity in uveitis, bacteria in confiscated passerines, and ecology of the Miscellaneous Crenarchaeotic Group archaea.

General microbiome

Host Biology in Light of the Microbiome: Ten Principles of Holobionts and Hologenomes – Seth R. Bordenstein , Kevin R. Theis – PLOS Biology

Human eye microbiome

Uveitis (Eye): Microbiota-Dependent Activation of an Autoreactive T Cell Receptor Provokes Autoimmunity in an Immunologically Privileged Site – Reiko Horai – Immunity

Human gut microbiome

Review: Diagnostic and Prognostic Microbial Biomarkers in IBD – Marla Dubinsky – Gastroenterology

Letter to the editor: Can inflammatory bowel disease really be solved by the multiple -omics and meta-omics analyses? – Xiaofa Qin – Immunology Letters

Animal models

In vivo imaging and tracking of host–microbiota interactions via metabolic labeling of gut anaerobic bacteria – Naama Geva-Zatorsky – Nature Medicine

Associative patterns among anaerobic fungi, methanogenic archaea, and bacterial communities in response to changes in diet and age in the rumen of dairy cows – Sanjay Kumar – Frontiers in Microbiology

Diet- and Genetically-Induced Obesity Differentially Affect the Fecal Microbiome and Metabolome in Apc1638N Mice – Anna C. Pfalzer – PLOS ONE

Animal microbiome

Detection of bacteria and fungi and assessment of the molecular aspects and resistance of E. coli isolated from confiscated passerines intended for reintroduction programs – Patricia Braconaro – Microbial Pathogenesis

Mining of luxS genes from rumen microbial consortia by metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approaches – Ines Ghali – Animal Science Journal

Isolation and identification of marine fish tumour (odontoma) associated bacteria – Ramalingam Vijayakumar – Journal of Coastal Life Medicine

A facultative endosymbiont in aphids can provide diverse ecological benefits – E. R. Heyworth andJ. Ferrari – Journal of Evolutionary Biology

Not sure why a study on RNAseq and 16S rRNA PCR on voles in France was published in PLOS NTD: A Comparison between Transcriptome Sequencing and 16S Metagenomics for Detection of Bacterial Pathogens in Wildlife – Maria Razzauti – PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Plant, roots, and soil microbiome

Assembly of Active Bacterial and Fungal Communities Along a Natural Environmental Gradient – Rebecca C Mueller – Microbial Ecology

Effects of imidacloprid on soil microbial communities in different saline soils– Qingming Zhang – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Water microbiome

Microbial Communities Can Be Described by Metabolic Structure: A General Framework and Application to a Seasonally Variable, Depth-Stratified Microbial Community from the Coastal West Antarctic Peninsula – Jeff S. Bowman – PLOS ONE

Diazotrophic bacterial community variability in a subtropical deep reservoir is correlated with seasonal changes in nitrogen – Lina Wang – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Built environment microbiome

Assessment of contamination using an ATP bioluminescence assay on doorknobs in a university-affiliated hospital in Japan – Naoko Kajigaya – BMC Research Notes

Diversity and antibiotic resistance profiles of Pseudomonads from a hospital wastewater treatment plant – D.O. Santoro – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Cleanroom Maintenance Significantly Reduces Abundance but Not Diversity of Indoor Microbiomes – Alexander Mahnert – PLOS ONE

Archaea

Insights in the ecology and evolutionary history of the Miscellaneous Crenarchaeotic Group lineage – Mireia Fillol – ISME Journal

Metabolomics

Plasma metabolomic profiles enhance precision medicine for volunteers of normal health
Lining Guo – PNAS

Techniques

Single-Molecule Real-Time Sequencing Combined with Optical Mapping Yields Completely Finished Fungal Genome – Luigi Faino – mBio

Microbes in the news

Bacteria’s secret weapon against pesticides and antibiotics revealed – Aarhus University – EurekAlert

Die, Bacteria! Engineered particles deliver targeted antibiotics – Helen Knight – Technology Review

Bacteria with synthetic DNA create protein never found in Nature – For when the usual four nucleotides can’t give you what you want – Alexandra Ossola – PopSci

Second Plague Case Traced to Yosemite National Park – Maggie Fox – NBC News

Science, publishing, and career

Increasing disparities between resource inputs and outcomes, as measured by certain health deliverables, in biomedical research – Anthony Bowena and Arturo Casadevall – PNAS
Return on Investment Slipping in Biomedical Research – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Science Week Australia: UNSW moves to strengthen women’s role in science – Marcus Strom – Sydney Morning Herald

Bik’s Picks

Stanford’s Angel of Grief Statue Has Arm Chopped Off By Vandals: The arm, made of fine Italian marble, is worth an estimated $20,000 – NBC Bay Area

Hummingbird tongues are way weirder than we thought – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

Can’t go to Mars? At least sign the card – Jillian Kestler-D’Amours – The Star

Flying Spiders Found—and They Can Steer in Mid-Air – Traci Watson – National Geographic

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